Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Along with the many mischievous tales and regales you shall find here is a NEW type of story that I have decided to include here, as I have been inspired by SO MANY unique and unusual people I have been lucky to find along my travels!

Every WEDNESDAY, we will feature ONE unique adventurer or artist in our Wild And Wanderful Wednesdays! If YOU Would like to be featured, do not hesitate to CONTACT me!

TO KICK things off, we have the TRULY Magical Tale of Dr. Solar, an entertainer and goodwill ambassador who combines magic with his convictions for environment and off-grid awareness. To boot, he showcases it all in a SOLAR POWERED gypsy wagon. You May Find Him On His FB PAGE HEREOr HIS WEBSITE HERE

Here is his story........

In 1980, two years after the first photovoltaic panels were sold in America for residential use, I was forced to move to a remote countryside free of chemical inundation due to a complete breakdown of my immune system and what later was to be known as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, with unrecognized findings of Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia.

This drop through the rabbit hole began a long arduous trip of healing and learning the ins and outs of what appears to me, a short shifted medical establishment. This is how I earned the moniker, Doctor.

Going off grid in 1980, I learned there were no charge controllers, only a Tripp Inverter limited to 500 watts and a drill took 750 watts. It was the very beginnings of solar, and I and a handful of others grew the solar industry, we were pioneers.

I was scratching out an existence on the land, being completely disabled, fighting a claim for workers’ injuries, I and two children first lived in an Army surplus tent and two 16 foot teepees along with our family pets, a dog and cat on 20 acres of raw, rugged land that did have a good year round water spring.

Having experienced, as a child, the first solar cells developed in 1954 by Bell Laboratories, I was told at that school assembly that we were witnessing the future. Maybe I was the only one listening that day for it was a very long wait for the future and I am still waiting but not idly standing by. I began with only four 35 watt panels, left all the unnecessary electrical appliances with my former city life and built a total passive solar home. Two homes actually, one being a 18 foot yurt, now considered a “Tiny House”.

Eventually my vagabond journeys, experiences with solar and off grid living, and my experiences with disabling food and chemical sensitivities would lead me on an extraordinary journey.....

My trek took me to Native American leaders, Navajo uranium mine workers and those called “Down winders”, people of Utah that suffered from cancers from radioactive fallout, denied by our government, from bomb tests in Nevada. I have spent more time on the road it seems, following the paths of Karen Silkwood, Norma Rae and my dear friend, Judy Bari, ( R.I.P.) EARTH FIRST activist bombed by the FBI and assorted police agencies attending and speaking a county, state and federal hearings, medical conventions and now, magical conventions and music festivals spreading bits of my knowledge from the stage of my World’s First Solar Powered Theatre. The theater is a thespian gypsy wagon style, opens on the side and a stage drops out. Ever since I went off grid, experiencing the magic of the suns power, I wanted to share it with the world. Hence, the solar road show was conceived in the mid 90’s.

I rekindled my childhood profession of magic and ventriloquism in 1997 while still suffering the Chronic Fatigue and uncertainty of daily, weekly living. All life’s experiences finally led me to the doorsteps of a doctor I began searching for in 1995 who wrote, THE END OF CANCER. I met him finally in 2003 where he taught me about VIBRATIONAL HEALING and diagnosing. He gave me my life back, slowly, but steadily over time. I was then able to project ahead a few days, then a week, eventually a month and know I could start making commitments to long term projects and contract for fairs and festival and know I would not be overcome by “sleeping sickness”. I had been performing at birthday parties, libraries and eventually preschools from 2000 and building a steady business. I built my gypsy theater in 2004 after winning awards at various magic contests. The hook was set.

I have spent the last three years completely dismantling a 2003 Freighliner one ton shuttle bus to the floorboard and building Casa del Sol, my RV live-in, tow vehicle for the theater. Together I have a combined 1500 watts of solar panels, two 3500 watt 24 volt inverters capable of powering my home even, two thirds of the year. The wagon alone has provided all the electricity for the Kids/ Family Zone at Lightning in a Bottle Music and Art Festival for the past five years, being part of what has helped them be awarded the Greenest Domestic Music Festival for the past five years.

Although I do have a home, I have been living in Casa Del Sol since last October after having come home from a summer of fairs and festivals. I have been working out the details of what is needed to make my tiny space livable. No stranger to this, before I moved to the land, I rented out my bedroom of my home and tried my hand at living through a winter in my 16 foot teepee set up in my backyard.

My dream is, as always, to help shine the light on alternative, sustainable, healthy living choices and how to buck the system for fun and profit. 85% of all housing in California is rentals. These people have very little chance of going solar, nobody cares that they do, government, landlords, banksters. I have given solar companies a chance to sponsor my shows, the solar pioneers have been bought out by corporate entities with ever so slight altruism. This year I will be showing people how to successfully slow their electric meters to a crawl for under a thousand dollars. My stage will be my pulpit to further spread the solar revolution to interested parties.

My sense is the a nomadic lifestyle will be the order of tomorrow due to growing environmental sacrifice areas and eminent domain land takeovers for commercial purposes. We have to be willing to walk at any given time. Let’s do it in style. Do not get me wrong, I am not a fatalist, I have just been there, done that. As one of my great mentors, John Trudell of the American Indian movement once said, “You..... will soon learn what reservation conditions are like. They don’t need you anymore.” Look around.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

This is not the conventional story of someone throwing money at luxury hotels
to show you glossy shots of glamorous, far-swept places.

And, indeed, while I LOVE those types of stories and may, at times,
appear to LIVE that story, I am here TO SHOW YOU HOW TO TRAVEL-- AND LIVE--in a novel way.

I am here to tell you how to live your most extraordinary life and, yes, how to
TRAVEL, no matter WHERE you are or WHO you are.

I am here to tell you how to do this when you are neither full of money, or time,
and whether you desire have a glossy life or a gritty life. I am here to tell you how
to live in the way you wish to, as much as you can, every day.

People often ask me this: how have you managed to travel and live your creative
life for almost 20 years?

My answer: there is no one straight path that has led to this unconventional,
unbound life of mine.

I remember, distinctly, as a child of perhaps eight, telling my mother that I
would definitively live an unusual life. And it was a onerous thought of mine to
create that life from the beginning. I was an avid artist--my first memory is of
drawing, and my first love, acting. Both of these would come to pass, but not by
any conventional means: I would create my own businesses instead of passing
through conventional 9 - 5 methods.

I have since gone on to spend 10 mad-capped years in New York creating my own
performing arts troupe called ChoveXani, but left that challenging space when
the economic downturn made it all but impossible to be an independent artist.

I then spent another 7 years recreating an amazing life based on my folk art roots started by my old-fashioned lineage from Europe and North African gypsy lore.

There has been much traveling, teaching, meeting of horses and bees, running through forests, interviewing amazing farmers, travelers, and creative people all across the United States, and in Europe. I have learned a pack-full of unusual skills, skinned a few knees, even had my heart broken a time or two.

But I have spent every day doing something unique and unusual,
and doing what I LOVE.

How can YOU do this? There are Tales to these Trails, and Tips and Tricks
along the way. If you listen very closely, I shall tell you, soon.